Vader is set in the visiting area of an old-folks home whose towering walls accentuate the fact that the action takes place deep underground. At the centre of this netherworld, somewhere between the world of the living and the dead, stands the figure of the father, who seems to be distancing himself gradually from the human community. His fading is drawn, not from the story of one individual, but from the mythology of the father, and in scenes that explode into action, and just as suddenly stop, this figure appears at once as God-like and ridiculous, as possessed of a rich mental life, and as disconnected, decaying, empty. His past may harbour a deep secret, or maybe he is simply mad or delusional. The other residents and the staff wonder at him, regarding him with amusement and hatred, affection and indifference. The piece plays on the widening gap between perception and reality, on the way time for the old appears to slow down so as to correspond to the lagging rhythm of their gestures, or articulate speech is received as static and music as noise, or the world itself seems to make sense only insofar as it is the embodiment of a memory. With poignancy and wit, Vader explores the moment when the memories (or are they fancies, hallucinations?) of an old man constantly threaten to tip the realities of daily life into fantasy.

Vader is the first part of the trilogy Father-Mother-Children. It premiered on 10 May 2014 in Theater im Pfalzbau (Ludwigshafen, DE). The piece got selected for the Theaterfestival 2015, gathering the most remarkable productions of the past season in Belgium and The Netherlands. and was elected Best Dance Performance of 2014 by Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad. In 2015 it was awarded a Premio de la Critica Barcelona (Barcelona Critics Award) in the category 'Best International Dance Production'.

Source : www.peepingtom.be

Gabriela (°1970, Córdoba, AR) was ten years old when she started  dancing at a multidisciplinary school that had, at the time, the only  group of contemporary dance for children and teenagers. Under Norma  Raimondi’s direction, the school went on to become Córdoba’s University  Ballet, where Gabriela danced for a couple of years, and where she  created her first choreographies.

She moved to Europe when she was nineteen, and over the years she worked with Caroline Marcadé, Les Ballets C de la B (La Tristeza Complice, 1997, and Iets op Bach, 1998), Koen Augustijnen (Portrait intérieur, 1994) and Needcompany (Images of Affection, 2001). She never stopped working on her own choreographies, and these years saw the production of a solo piece, E tutto sará d’ombra e di caline,  and Bartime, a collaboration with Einat Tuchman and Lisi Estaras. She  also created the choreography for the opera Wolf (2002), by Les Ballets C  de la B. She plays a leading role in Fien Troch’s movie Kid (2012), and  in 2013 she created the short piece The missing door (2013) for the  Nederlands Dans Theater – NDT 1 in The Hague. In 2015, Gabriela created The Land, a collaboration with the Munich Residenztheater. More recently, she worked with Franck Chartier on 31 Rue Vandenbranden  (2018) an adaptation with Le Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon of Peeping Tom’s  original. The new piece opened the prestigious Biennale de la Danse de  Lyon in 2018. In 2022, Gabriela directed La Ruta, her second short piece for Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT 1).

Gabriela has been the artistic director of Peeping Tom, along with Franck Chartier, since they co-founded the company in 2000.
 

Source : Peeping Tom's website

More information :

peepingtom.be/en

Born in 1977, Fabien Plasson is a video director specialized in the field of performing arts (dance , music, etc).

During his studies at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Lyon (joined in 1995) Fabien discovered video art. He was trained by various video artists (Joel Bartoloméo Pascal Nottoli , Eric Duyckaerts , etc).
He first experimented with the creation of installations and cinematic objects.

From 2001 to 2011, he was in charge of Ginger & Fred video Bar’s programming at La Maison de la Danse in Lyon. He discovered the choreographic field and the importance of this medium in the dissemination, mediation and pedagogical approach to dance alongside Charles Picq, who was a brilliant video director and the director of the video department at that time.

Today, Fabien Plasson is the video director at La Maison de la Danse and in charge of the video section of Numeridanse.tv, an online international  video library, and continues his creative activities, making videos of concerts, performances and also creating video sets for live performances.

Sources: Maison de la Danse ; Fabien Plasson website

More information: fabione.fr

Gabriela Carrizo (I/AR) and Franck Chartier (F) founded Peeping Tom in 2000. Together they created a first location project that was taking place in a trailer home, Caravana (1999), with would-be long-time collaborator Eurudike De Beul, followed by the film Une vie inutile (2000). 

Peeping Tom’s hallmark is a hyperrealistic aesthetic anchored to a concrete set: a garden, a living room and a basement in the first trilogy ( Le Jardin , 2002; Le Salon , 2004; and Le Sous Sol , 2007), two trailer homes in a snow-covered landscape in 32 rue Vandenbranden (2009), or a burned theatre in A Louer (2011). In these, the directors create an unstable universe that defies the logic of time and space. Isolation leads to an unconscious world of nightmares, fears and desires, which the creators deftly use to shed light on the dark side of a character or a community. The huis clos of family situations remains for Peeping Tom a major source of creativity. The company has started working on a second trilogy – Vader (Father), Moeder (Mother), Kinderen (Children) – around this theme, with Vader (Father) already having premiered. 

In 2005, Le Salon was awarded the Prix du Meilleur Spectacle de Danse (Best Dance Show Prize) in France. In 2007, the company received the Mont Blanc Young Directors Award during the Salzburg Festival and the Patrons Circle Award at the Melbourne International Arts Festival. The pieces Le Sous Sol , A Louer and Vader (Father) all got selected for the Theaterfestival, which gathers the most remarkable shows of the past season in Belgium and The Netherlands. In 2013, A Louer was nominated for the prestigious Ubu Awards in Italy, in the category Best Performance in Foreign Language, during the theatrical season 2012-2013. 32 rue Vandenbranden was elected Best Dance Show of the Year 2013 in São Paulo (BR) by magazine Guia Folha and won in 2015 a prestigious Olivier Award, in the category 'Best New Dance Production'.

Peeping Tom's latest production, Vader (Father), is the first part of the trilogy Father-Mother-Children. It premiered on 10 May 2014 in Theater im Pfalzbau (Ludwigshafen, DE). Apart from being in the official selection of the Theaterfestival 2015, it was also elected Best Dance Performance of 2014 by Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad. The jury of the 'Premios de la Crítica Barcelona' awarded Vader in its turn with a first prize in the category 'Best International Dance Production of 2014'. 

Source: Peeping Tom

More information : peepingtom.be